Drinking a Sunset – Turning Water into Liquor
I just love sunsets! I love to capture them – usually with my camera, but this time I decided to capture a sunset in a glass!
So the question is, can you drink a sunset? No doubt many of us have had a cocktail that resembles a glowing sunset made from sweet tasting liquor, but for this sunset cocktail all I used was water. Then, sit back and let the reflection of the sky turn the water into liquor!
Why?
You might be asking yourself why did I do this and what does it have to do with food photography? As I mentioned, I love sunsets and I wanted to integrate a sunset into something that also translated into food and pushed me creatively. Choosing a well known symbol associated with food, the wine glass, I headed up to a great sunset lookout near my house, hoping to capture the sunset in my glass.
My shots worked out better than I had imagined. The sunset was perfect in colour with not a cloud in the sky.
I want to create art, and I am always looking for ways to think outside the box when shooting food!
How?
The shot above depicts just how I set up for the shot. It’s simple! I just filled my glass with the elixir of life, placed it on a rock – with nothing in the background but sky!
Getting the ‘look’ is all about the getting the angle. I shot the glass against the sky from straight on or just below straight on. This allowed the sky to fill the backdrop and the glass.
The dark middle is actually the reflection of the escarpment where the sun was setting. Changing the camera angle allowed me to increase and decreased the level of dark and coloured sky throughout the glass.
These photos were shot a little under exposed and have not been enhanced in any way. All the magic in the photos is owed to the sunset and its depiction in the glass. The textured nature of the glass stem allowed for the brilliant blue of the sky to be trapped in the outline of the glass – making it stand out from the background.
They say two sunsets are never alike – different sunsets would theoretically give us many different cocktails!
I hope this post and photos have given you some inspiration to think outside the box!
xx












Great photos!
Cheers! The cold evening was worth the pain!
Oh my goodness! Look at your first shot!!!! How wonderful! No words need! Absolutely love them!
Thanks Bella. I do as well
I like the way the sunset reflects both in the glass and the stem (especially in the last pic) – if you hadn’t mentioned the stem I might actually have overlooked it because I was so fascinated with the top half of the glass.
That’s funny! I am glad I mentioned it then. It was the first thing that I noticed, but maybe that was because I was seeing the top half in my mind before the shoot.
Just amazing!
Cheers!
your work reflect an amazing passion on your part. great shots!
Passionate and a little crazy!
Just love these shots. I’ve never seen a sunset done this way. Really original. Three sunsets all in one shot.
Thanks John! I guess having a focus (food) and trying to capture it different ways can give some great ideas! I was just thinking the other day I could have also done this for the 50mm experiment water challenge!
It would definitely have been a winner as well.
Umm, you’re awesome.
– Jasper
WOW Thank you!
I do love your first shot best. What a fascinating “looking glass”. A great idea for sure. And then great execution.
Thanks! The shape of the glass does help. It is a cheap glass, but the I think the thickness helped with the reflection!
Oh my word, these are stunning, simply stunning.
That’s very kind of you! The colours certainly assist I think!
I still can’t get over how professional these are. Incredible and amazing!!!
Yeah I love them and the fact that they turned out perfectly first time!
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